Summertime Sadness

It's my ritual at the beginning of every school year to wistfully look at pictures from the summer. It's okay, I love my job, I love my kids, but saying goodbye to summer is so, so hard. Plus Brian's been playing Lana Del Ray on vinyl so I got that Summertime, Summertime Sadness up in here. I babysat all day long during the summer, so it wasn't quite the total sleep-in-until-noon laziness that one might expect a teacher on summer break to exhibit, but it had its amazing moments nonetheless.

There are a few days of summer that I'd really, really love to relive. Here are just three of them.

This was the only photo snapped on a day trip to New Buffalo, Michigan. Reese, Danny, Brian and I headed up there (thank the Lord for summer schedules and free Thursdays!) and spent all day in the sun and water. The Warren Dunes have officially become my favorite beach within a few hours of our place. We spent all afternoon bodysurfing (or attempting to do so) and laying out. This is also where I started the last book in my big literary adventure with my friend Harry Potter, with my number one Harry enthusiast friend and encourager, Reese. When I think of a carefree summer, I think of this day. 

Ah! This day was so wonderful. This is the day that one of my favorite people on earth, Melanie Rae Lawrence herself, was asked to marry the handsome and wonderful guy of her dreams. She of course said that yes she would. I can. not. wait. for their wedding in May. She deserves every bit of happiness and warm fuzzies that she gets. 

 

Oh hayyyy Tayyyy! Okay she told me that I could call her Tay Tay. She did. I'm not kidding. We're friends now. She gave me relationship advice, friendship wisdom, and generally blew us all away. Couldn't have asked for better compadres for this adventure. I know there are a lot of haters out there as always (and best believe they gonna hate, hate, hate), but I could not have been more impressed with her live performance. Taylor, we'll be seeing you again in 2017. Just keep bringing it back to Chicago, friend. You can count on Karley, Mel, and me to be cheering for that throwback performance of You're Not Sorry, Fifteen, and Fearless that the little 11 old fans won't be old enough to know. 

Ahhh. Three fantastic days. 

T-SWIZZLE FO LIFE

The immaturity of this post's title is meant to reflect the age I am about to seem after you read it in its entirety.

Thirteen.

Because that was the median age of attendee at Taylor Swift's concert on Saturday night. Never mind I happen to be a decade older than that.

But I don't care, because Karley, Mel, and I had a magical experience at Soldier Field in her majesty's presence and none of y'all haters can take that away. Let' s just say that after all 90 glorious minutes of her performance, the only words I could put together on my lips, parted in sheer awe and dazzlement, were, "Today was a fairytale."

But for real though, you guys. The three amigos have been pro-T-Swift for as long as there WAS T-Swift. Taylor is our age - three months younger than me and three months older than Karley and Mel - and speaks to us in each and every stage of life. We were there at age 17 for her debut album, started college to the tunes of Fearless, finished junior year and the last stretch at Trinity to Speak Now, and met adulthood face on jamming out to the tunes of Red. She was basically the soundtrack to our friendships, relationships, and all the other ships that were going on.

We absolutely love her. Sorry, we are NOT sorry. 

And we kept just saying things spontaneously throughout the night that made us seem all the more ridiculous. "She's so pretty." "She's amazing." "I love her outfit." "That song is so true." "She's the best." "This is the coolest thing I've ever done." "She's SO pretty." And more obnoxious proclamations.

Basically, I had an amazing Saturday night. Sitting with two of my favorite people in the world, watching one of my other favorite people in the world jam out to the songs I've been singing over and over and over for the last six years. Next to 10-year-old little girls out with their soccer moms and red pom-poms. It really was a fairytale.

Jolly Lolly

I had the privilege to attend Lollapalooza 2013 for the day on Sunday. Now, if you're wondering why on earth I bought an all-day concert ticket on the first Sunday of my school year, that's a valid concern. To be honest, I bought the ticket in April without much consideration for the pure exhaustion that sets in for teachers at the beginning of the year. I came home tonight from school and told my roommate Jen that it felt like I had endured a 3 hours of a pillow fight; I didn't have any specific physical pain of any kind, but my whole body felt sore and I had no energy. At least I assume that's what a 3-hour pillow fight feels like. 

But I digress. Back to Lolla. I fought the exhaustion and had an amazing time with my friends Sam and Stephen (and their college friends), and Gina from Trinity. Gina and I ended up getting separated from the pack and just ended up catching the last few bands that we wanted to see. We found out that it is pretty much impossible to find anyone or meet up with anyone due to crap cell reception, but we caught some amazing bands on Sunday. We got tidbits of lots of good ones, but got a good dose of Tegan and Sara, Vampire Weekend, and Phoenix really close to the stage. All of those bands were impressive, and I was particularly impressed with Tegan and Sara. They sounded amazing live. Which, if you sing their songs in the car, you know that it is not easy to sound good live whilst singing their songs. Plus now I want to go buy a real leather jacket because Sara looked super cool in hers. In our efforts to get close to the front of the crowds for these shows, we had a lot of wait time in between. Here are a few selfies from our giddy and happy day on Sunday while we waited for our bands to play. Def going back next year, first week of teaching or not.

A happy day. 

Groupie

The past two months have been full of music and concerts in some really cool places in Chicago. I thought I'd share the goods about four concerts I've attended in the last few weeks. Please don't think I'm  all that connected and in the scene on my own - I just mostly tagged along with my friends who are much cooler than I to these events.

Love random reunions

 The first I'm going to share is the most recent. Passion Pit. Matt & Kim. Icona Pop. OH MY GOODNESS. First of all, my sister-in-law cued in me into this infectious anthem by Icona Pop a few weeks ago and when I found out they were the opener it was a sweet, sweet moment. These chicks are some badass girls, let me tell you. There's something super cool about a girlband who can do all their own music. Girl power. Then, the second band and probably the most entertaining portion of the evening was Matt & Kim. They're together together and are the coolest music power couple I've ever seen. Kim goes crazy on the drums as Matt plays keyboard and sings in his hallmark voice. A really sweet feature of their concerts is that they have up-close cameras showing their faces on huge screens as they perform. Watching the unadulterated joy that flooded Kim's face as she drummed away for about an hour made me want to drop everything and take up percussion. Then, when I thought nothing else would make me happier, Passion Pit took the stage and was just so good. They have so much imagination. It is really cool to see. Plus the lead singer was wearing a suit and tie, and let me tell you I am a sucker for a guy dressed in a nicely fitted suit. I could relive this concert once or twice if I had a time machine. I went with my good friend Gina, who is a senior at Trinity and on her Chicago semester. I also got to see my fab TFA friend Sam (you've met her on this blog many times before) who was there with her boyfriend and coincidentally a few rows over. This was at the UIC Pavillion just about a mile up the road from my apartment. All in all, amazing concert. 

Gina and I 

Okay. Next event. The Darkness. Zach, my co-teacher from the summer and friend who has been lost to Milwaukee's TFA crew, came down to Chicago and offered me an extra ticket at the last second. This was a hilarious time. The lead singer is completely ridiculous. He rides that fine line of crazy/talented/funny/obnoxious. These guys are incredibly talented. Face-melting guitar solos to last a long, long time. This one took place at The Vic. I got the feeling that this venue is a little bit more geared toward the grungier rock crowd, which was cool. I do, in fact, believe in a thing called love.

Then comes Wakey! Wakey! This was at Schuba's up in Lakeview at a really small venue. It was cool to be so close. I went with two people from my small group at church and had a really good time. This guy is hilarious and I almost enjoyed his comments as much as his singing. For all you One Tree Hill fans (I am not one of these, but I have many good friends who are), his songs were featured on that show once upon a time and he blew up from there. He's got incredible range and just the right amount of nasally whiny goodness to satisfy a girl like me who went through high school listening to Dashboard Confessional and Secondhand Serenade. He is great.

Finally, you've already heard about the concert I went to at Lincoln Hall, a medium-sized venue that featured The Freelance Whales. I went with my TFA Chicago friends for a fun little reunion to reminisce on the craziness we shared this summer as well as enjoy some cool music. Again, I want to be a vintage-dress-wearing-girl who plays bass in one of these bands. Maybe they take ex-french-horn players? I'll submit an application.

All in all, Chicago's music scene has been good to me as of late. I am dying to see Rihanna on March 22nd, but alas, I'm not a millionaire and would rather not drop 200 bucks to be in the very last row in the United Center. I was too late on the draw. I already have T-Swift tickets lined up for Soldier Field coming this August (yes, we were NOT GOING TO MISS THAT ONE) and am on the search for other good shows in the area. Fun times will be had by all. 

Good Friends

Miss Ashley and I 

January has been full of chances to reunite with friends from different little parts of my life. The beautiful Ashley Wisz (you first met her here) from my semester in Spain came to visit me for a day and see my life here in Chicago. We went to the afternoon show of The Second City, got dinner at Simone's, and watched Pitch Perfect. I know, that sounds like A PERFECT DAY to me as well. Acca-believe it. She is a beautiful, fun, and vivacious girl who just got engaged! She's gearing up to get married and start a new life adventure this June and I had to hear all about it. We had a great time catching up, reminiscing about hilarious European moments, and dreaming about what's going to come in the next few years. I am addicted to reunions. Can't get enough...

...which leads me to last weekend. We had a Teach For America reunion with Zach, Julia, Sam, and myself and got to relive a little piece of our time together at Institute. We caught a show by a band called The Freelance Whales (we all kept making stupid comments about how nice it must be for these whales to work from home) at Lincoln Hall (super cool place) and had a great time. The venue is attached to a bar and was relatively small with no seats for the audience, which made for a nice atmosphere. This band has inspired me to learn to play bass. There was one chick in the band who was wearing the most doubty looking thrift store 90's dress who played the bass. She had black hair cut in a bob with bangs and red lipstick. The dress was denim and floor length and ugly. It was awesome. I suddenly have a nagging itch to cut my hair off, cut my bangs back in, and start wearing frumpy ensembles whilst pseudo-playing the accordion and jumping around onstage with a band of cool guys. Then I remembered I'm a teacher and that frumpy denim isn't my best look. But it was tempting. We'll see if my impulse gets the best of me. I think I'll play for a band called Cubicle Dolphins. 

note the photobomber behind me. gold. also, sam stole my glasses. 

co-teachers back in business

After the Spain reunion, the TFA reunion, I fit in one more reunion saved for Trinity friends! Karlie, Andy, Jeremy, and Jacquelyn came up to the city (from Iowa and Palos Heights) to see my apartment, check out my favorite coffee shop in Pilsen, and come to church with me. It was happiness all around. 

I just finished up another weekend full of Downton Abbey (OBSESSED and not ashamed) and am now capping off my Sunday afternoon with a healthy dose of laundry folding and watching Pride and Prejudice. Apparently I am really into the whole English thing these days with my choice of programming. I find their understated wit perfectly brilliant. (Read that last sentence with an accent, please.) Any other people looking for a reunion, comeeeeee onnn downnn! 

Change-Up

This weekend was a big one. I finished the last day of Teach For America's Institute, said goodbye to my wonderful TFA friends, moved into a new apartment, met my new roommates, and will continue on as a real-life adult tomorrow in my real-life professional development session at my school. (I feel like I say "real-life" a lot when referring to my teaching and post-grad life...I think I do this because while all of those things are very real, I don't usually feel like a "real-life" adult.) Maybe I'll write more reflectively on the past little segment of my life in a day or so, but for now I'll let you know the cool things that went down in the past few days.

On Friday night my cousin Craig (who has a very high cool factor) invited me to go see his friend's band at the House of Blues. I grabbed Zach, my co-teacher who loves concerts, and rode up the Green Line to meet Craig and his friends (as well as unexpectedly run into one of my absolute favorite human beings, Lauren Sandberg! Ah!). 

Okay now a word about Zach. This kid has expressed how he feels snubbed for not being mentioned by name in the blog so far, so here goes: Zach was my better half in room 309 as the fellow Reading and Writing teacher and probably saved my life a million times by telling me to stop worrying, finding my lesson plans for me that I misplaced, and telling me that the lesson didn't go THAT badly when it definitely DID GO THAT BADLY. He's a Bostonian, so I like to repeat things in his R-omitting-accent (pahk the cah instead of park the car) while he often makes me repeat my Wisconsin-style pronunciation of "bag." One commonality that made me really excited: He also calls it a bubbler when you other people would refer to it as a drinking fountain. He is in the Milwaukee corps for TFA, so I don't have to say goodbye permanently, I just am super bummed that my partner in crime won't be there for me to make fun of and pester in Chicago all the time. But remember how I'm not getting too upset with saying goodbyes anymore? I'm an adult and I'm sucking it up. (Not really, but I want to sound confident so that's my story for now.) 

We saw the band Mike Golden & Friends headline at the House of Blues and it was AMAZING. They have such a cool vibe to their show (you can download their new album here!) and convinced me of their rockstardom in just a short hour and a half. It was a fabulous night to be in the city. Then reality hit. The next morning I opened my dorm door at IIT and saw this:

Yep. Move-out day. It sucks. Not only are you sad to leave your friends and awesome fun memories behind, you have to sweat like a beast and haul crap around in this sad nostalgic state. But then, all of a sudden, after 14 trips up and down four flights of stairs carrying everything I hold dear, Move-out day turned into Move-in day! Wouldya look at that?  See how that worked out to be an okay day after all? Nice. Here's a sneak preview of my apartment in Pilsen. It's a beaut. I'm just learning about how cool and authentic the neighborhood is as I'm hearing more about it and seeing it for myself. My roommates are two happy and fun girls, so I am really thankful for this living set-up. I'm still a little iffy on how I feel about being on my own in the real-life adult world (there I go again), but it's going to be a fun adventure to figure it all out. Look at me, a Chicago resident!

Not only did all those things happen this weekend, but another HUGE event in my life occurred. I discovered Cookie Butter. It might rank up there with starting a new job and moving into a new apartment on the gravity of impact that it's made on my life. I know there are others out there who have been on this train and I'm just hitching on now, but I have to say that it is the most delicious bandwagon I've jumped on since the joint Pizza Hut-Taco Bell drive-thru craze hit Sheboygan County in 2006. This stuff is amazing. It's hard for me to remember to spread it on other foods instead of just eat it by the spoonful on its own. I'm telling you, give it a shot. Right now. You won't be disappointed. I'll be spending tonight eating this, getting ready for bed, and falling asleep in a brand-new-to-me place. Real-life tastes good. 

Mishmash

The elements of this post won't have much to do with each other besides the fact that they occurred in my presence in the last week. First things first, last weekend was the birthday of two of my favorite people in the whole world! Karley and Liz, my cousins, both turned 22. Karyn, Karley, and I made the trek to NW Iowa for a visit to the Dordt College area to celebrate this huge worldwide event. Remy was a dream to drive the whole way. (Well, Karyn and Karley may not agree with me; the lack of cruise control is a feature I don't notice anymore. I just love that car so stinkin' much. I accept him as he is. And I also am overlooking a warning light episode that caused us to pull over and pop the hood like real live professionals.) On our way, there was a sign in the sky that it was going to be a good weekend. (Okay maybe it's not a sign but whatever. I liked it. And I had a fabulous weekend. So I'm saying it was a sign.)

The next video is going to knock your socks off. Last week Wednesday our Concert Choir at Trinity (of which I am a member...why they let me in, I'm not sure) got to join in with three other choirs for one amazing concert. Rehoboth, a high school from an Indian reservation in New Mexico, Elim, a school for disabled students, and Roseland, a Chicago Christian school, all came to our chapel for a combined performance. It was SO SWEET. I honestly think that I got a taste of what heaven is going to look and sound like from that night. Here's a video of the Roseland kids singing their hearts out. 

In addition to road trips and concerts, my mother and I discussed how I spend my money. Oops. To clarify, I did in fact work last summer to make more than what warrants a $36 tax return, I just made it working for the nannying black market. If I tell you any more, I'd have to kill you.

And, to top it all off, an extremely important event happened last week. I WORE LIPSTICK. I know, I know. There were the naysayers. There were those who thought it couldn't be done. There were even those who expressed skepticism (and rightly so) that I possessed the grace and coordination to maintain lipstick on my lips without smearing it all over my face like some sort of sad Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker impersonation. But, lo and behold, I accomplished this historical task. My quest to turn into Zooey Deschanel is starting to look attainable. Write it down folks, remember where you are right now...this is the most significant piece of news you'll receive in a long time.

Not showing teeth because I'm not confident that
there isn't lipstick on those too.